The 26th International Congress of the Transplantation Society was held from August 18-23 in Hong Kong. Former Deputy Director of the Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China, Huang Jiefu, was the keynote speaker.

News of a hospital under his charge, the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, was involved in the recent organ trade scandal. International medical organizations called for the cancellation of his speech to take a stand against China’s illegal organ harvesting.

A female farmer, Yin Quanzhu, from Hunan Province filed a complaint through the local government’s website in June this year. She was a uremic patient. In 2013, she had a kidney transplant operation at the Third Xiangya Hospital. She paid $150,000 yuan (US$22,473) but was never provided a receipt for the payment.

The transplanted kidney was later removed due to a problem with bleeding. The whole process resulted in a 20 percent loss of health and mobility. The doctor admitted to receiving $150,000 for the purchase of the kidney and stated that the money “was passed on to the Organ Procurement Organization (OPO).”

Huang Jie-fu is the honorary chairman of all OPOs in China and Ye Qi-fa, deputy principal of the Third Xiangya Hospital, is the chairman.

Ye Qi-fa. (Image: Zhengwu Li)

It was back in 2005 when Huang publicly announced that the Third Xiangya Hospital would be the coordination center of organ supplies for all transplants in China. In the same year, the hospital received an upgrade to a national level transplantation center.

News that the hospital has been involved in the organ trade from 2013 until now recently became known. A doctor from the hospital, Doctor Lao, stated that their organ supply was so abundant that they were able to send surplus organs to other hospitals for transplant operations.